Opium, famine and banks all played their part in this country's plundering of the globe. Now it's over, we find it hard to accept

George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 June 2009

Why now? It's not as if this is the first time Britain's representatives have been caught out. The history of governments in all countries is the history of scandal, as those who rise to the top are generally the most ambitious, ruthless and unscrupulous people politics can produce. Pushing their own interests to the limit, they teeter perennially on the brink of disgrace, except when they fly clean over the edge. So why does the current ballyhoo threaten to destroy not only the government but also our antediluvian political system?